How To Make a Parked Priceless Vintage Porsche Look Like It's Racing

I'm always amazed at how my car photographer friends can make a car that is parked at an event looks like it is racing at high speed with proper application of post-produciton and back plates. To think that this image by Jordan Donnelly started with a photo of a rare automobile at an event with no lighting or special equipment is incredible. Read about his process below and feel free to ask him questions in the comments section to learn more.

According to Jordan:

"A couple of weeks ago I went out to Circuit Mont Tremblant to watch some vintage racing. It’s (usually) an awesome event that brings out some legendary cars from all different eras. These cars range from full-on racecars that have raced and won Le Mans, to old school Bugattis just for show. Unfortunately, the entire weekend was marred with rain.

"I arrived on the last day and instead of the incredible sound of pre-regulation straight pipes, all that was seen was the sight of tents being packed up and cars under covers. As we were about to leave I noticed this Porsche 917K in the classic Martini Racing Livery. I rushed over and caught a quick snap of it before they rolled it into the trailer. When I got home I did some research and found out that it had raced in the 24 Hours of Daytona back in 1971. It blew a tire at 190mph and crashed into a wall, not finishing the race. It was then retired, with heavy damage to the suspension and body. I can only assume it has since been bought by a collector or someone who has restored it to it’s peak condition and runs it at vintage races such as this one at Circuit Mont Tremblant.

"Having not been able to see the car run on the track I dug through some backplate folders and found some older shots that I thought could work with the Porsche pic I had captured. The car was wet since it was raining that day and so I decided to try to do something a little different. My goal for the image was to create one that would reflect what could have been that day at the racetrack if only the weather gods would have allowed it.

"The first thing you have to figure out on a comp like this, is getting the perspective right. I hadn’t even started to think about this shot until I saw that I had a nice shot of a racetrack that was at the same perspective as the car. The next thing is the shadow, which is another thing that can make or break your image. Using a low opacity soft brush I painted in the shadow, trying to match the one from the original Porsche image. This can be tricky, especially if you are doing a comp with a sunset or any other kind of harsh lighting.

"Once I got the main image down, I decided I wanted to do the shot as if it was driving in the rain. I had never done anything like this before, so it was all very new to me. To make the rain look realistic, I used several layers at different sizes, and blurred them differently to create depth. The biggest challenge was the spray on the ground. This took the most amount of time for me to do, as it was all trial and error. I again used a low opacity soft brush to paint it all in. I used some splatter brushes as well to give it a bit more depth, which you can see if you look closely at the tires right where they are hitting the ground."

Commercial Photographer (mainly Phase One medium format digital) and filmmaker based out of NYC. Started a site called Notabully.org to spread stories about well-behaved and positive pitbulls. Love cars, 80s movies, dogs, and adventure. Free time is spent traveling, sleeping, adventuring, or working on my baby, a 1969 Mustang Mach 1.

I know, you've got crazy mad retouchers out there (I've even been to a high end fashion/advertising studio in NY), but it kills a little of the magic of shooting for me. On a different subject, just watched the D810 video you did, good stuff man. I've been tempted to switch to Nikon just because of the D800/810, wasn't aware at all of the price drop for the 800